Tennessee

So Chris and I visited my family in Tennessee in mid-January in part due to my parents' asking and then offering to pay for half of our airline tickets, and also due to the ridiculously good deal we got on said tickets (thank you Delta for your after Christmas online pricing screw-up). So we decide to go in January because I wasn't going to be massively pregnant, but being on a plane for a while was still a pain in the ass...literally.

Anyway, we were in Tennessee for about 5 days and got to see the place my parents left Vegas for:) We had a good time and spent it all with lots of family to include my brother, aunt, uncle and cousin. So here's some pics of our little excursion, and by some, I mean a lot, but deal with it, there's some pretty funny ones.

My dad and Chris went on a little adventure while my mom and I went to visit her work and have lunch.

I really love this picture, mostly because my dad does not know how to smile in photos but in this one he nailed it;)

Dylan's dog, Ranger, freakin sweetest dog ever

See what I told you! My dad's wary glance is just for fun

My mom wouldn't be my mom without cats all over her

Aunt Sandra, Madison and I, it was so great to see them

Awww, love my dad, and it was his birthday too!

Madison and her boyfriend, Justin, who inadvertently became our family photographer that night

LOVE it, my dad and Uncle Rob

Dylan doing what he does best

My family is going to hate me for posting this, but the amount of derp in this photo is incredible

Awww, nice family photo

Chris cracks everyone up when he's behind the camera

Oh yah, this is just the beginning of these kinds of photos...

This is their relationship summed up in this photo...

And then this one:)

How does this nice photo...

Lead to this one?! Brother, you don't kiss your sister's belly...everyone had a good laugh at the face I made

Amazing cousins, what can we say?

There was a cool farm near the parents' house, so we took a drive and Chris snapped some cool picks of animals I did not expect to see in Tennessee, like this yak

Llama wasn't incredibly surprising

But the camel definitely was!

I did not know he snapped this pic, but it definitely summed up how I felt a lot, stinkin jet lag and time change on top of pregnanciness

NOT wine, if this pic makes anyone annoyed, it was awesome cherry cider

Family pic on the porch, complete with rocking chairs, which everyone has in my parents' neck of the woods

Of course this is what constant picture snapping leads to. I really don't know what happened to Chris, maybe he's just practicing for May?

And the obligatory parents touching my belly photo

So yah, we had a good time, if you couldn't tell. We ate out at some good, local places and I, of course, relished in the fact that I got to eat my mom's cooking (she had a spaghetti night just for me!). It was nice to see where my family resides, their house is really cute and it felt like my parents' home to me when we were there, even though it's not the house they lived in for 21 years.

Chris' Bday Pics (finally)

So I'm finally uploading Chris' birthday pictures, yay! I had mentioned in the last post that I was going for a vintage airplane theme, which I really only quasi-managed to do through the invites, Chris' get-up, and the map bunting...I totally blame it on feeling like shite the first trimester, but Chris seemed to be happy with the party, so I guess it was a success:)

Chris' awesome invite from Computer Art Nerd

Put him in an aviator costume and this is what happens...complete with airplane noises. Oh yah, and check out that spread! Jen and Pepper are wonderful!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was awesome that his parents could make it out for the party

Yummy food!

Matching smiles

It was great to have extra seating for the buddies and their wee ones

And of course we had paper airplanes...lots and lots of paper airplanes

Photo bombing friends are the best

We had a blast at Chris' party and I just remember thinking the whole time that we have the best family and friends; they're always there to help us celebrate whatever it is we're celebrating and help us to set up and clean up the the fun!

December Stuff

What better way to announce our pregnancy on the blog than with Benedict Cumberbatch?:)

I know that the handful of people who read this blog already know we're having a baby, but I haven't announced it on the blog yet, so here you go! We found out on the 17th that we're having a girl! Her name is Evelyn Rose, Evey for short, and we are ridiculously excited. I even have some cute/creepy ultrasound photos!

This is the creepy one

And this is the cute one, she's sucking her thumb!

Evey is due on May 13th and I'm feeling the need to get her room in order, especially since we now know she's a she. That should be happening sometime in the next couple weeks.

So November and December were whirlwinds around here, mostly for me because I started a seasonal job at Barnes and Noble mid-November (which will end on January 5th). I don't want to say getting the job was a mistake, all the money I made went to my student loans, I met some great people, got a great discount, but I'm a bit exhausted and we had a lot going on in December, naturally.

We had a big party for Chris' 30th on the 13th which was awesome, and which I do not have pics of yet. It was a fun vintage airplane theme party with Chris all dressed up in aviator gear, map bunting and Chris' favorite foods. Of course Jen and Pepper were there and provided most of the amazing food, from a mashed potato bar (served in martini glasses) to to sliders, to mozzarella sticks in votives. It was a great time and as soon as Chris can find his memory card reader, I'll share some pics.

Chris' party was definitely a family affair with his parents and two brothers coming to join us. For my birthday I dragged everyone to high tea and a play, which, surprisingly, they all seemed to enjoy:)

Love High Tea!

Very serious tea drinkers

Amidst their visit I was working and scrambling to finish the XMas shopping/shipping (I'm happy to say that the last gift to arrive was two days after Christmas, not too bad). I also, unfortunately, gave up on my 20 book reading goal, sigh. I only made it to 10, but I'm trying not to feel that bad because, obviously, I had a lot going on. Soooo, now I'm going to make a 2014 book goal! I'd like to put the goal at 40, but with Evey's impending arrival, I don't think that's going to happen, so I'm going to say 25. And speaking of goals, I know Chris' is to finish the El Camino before Evey's born, so hopefully that'll get done (I really miss parking in the garage).

December has been an amazing month and we've seen a lot of our family and even friends we haven't seen in a while! Dan and Brittani were in town from San Francisco and we were able to squeeze in a 7 am breakfast with them, I had lunch and did some shopping with Sarah last Thursday (and who I'm looking forward to spending more time with in February and March while she's on leave) and Anna, who I haven't seen in 4+ years, was in town! We had breakfast and also did some shopping on Friday, and it was so much fun to catch up after all that time.

So, it was a very busy and very fun December and I'm glad we were able to squeeze in so much stuff into this month. January will be busy as we're having Nesha, Elijah, Sal, Oz, and two of their friends over next weekend, I will be an assistant educator for a winter break camp for a week at The Discovery, and we're going to visit my family in Tennessee for a couple days. Should be a good time and hopefully things will slow down a bit in February, but I see baby showers looming ahead...

Happy New Year to everyone!